November 26th

Monday

2018

Welcome to this week’s Cashmere Quick Hits where our Creative Strategy team delivers three stories aimed at giving you more insight into Hollywood and the business every Monday morning!

Social Media Bots Draw Public’s Attention and Concern

This topic has drawn the attention of much of the public: About two-thirds of Americans (66%) have heard about social media bots, though far fewer (16%) have heard a lot about these accounts. Among those aware of the phenomenon, a large majority are concerned that bot accounts are being used maliciously, according to a new Pew Research Center survey conducted July 30-Aug. 12, 2018, among 4,581 U.S. adults who are members of Pew Research Center’s nationally representative American Trends Panel (the Center has previously studied bots ontwitter and other news sites. Eight-in-ten of those who have heard of bots say that these accounts are mostly used for bad purposes, while just 17% say they are mostly used for good purposes

This VC-funded anti-brand already has a 100K-person wait list

Italic, which launches this week with $13 million in funding, is trying to upend fashion by selling directly from the same factories as high-end brands. Italic a new members-only marketplace that launches today, wants to sell you that Celine-quality bag without the outrageous price that comes along with the logo. Founder and CEO Jeremy Cai scoured the globe to find the factories that make products for the best luxury brands in the world and delivers a curated array of exclusive products from those same factories at reasonable prices. Unlike other direct-to-consumer startups, Italic doesn’tdesign products or even buy inventory from these manufacturers, leaving this up to product designers at the factories.

NY Times: In Luxury’s Future it’s personalized everything

Several industry leaders said at The New York Times International Luxury Conference in Hong Kong last week, the walls between a traditional brick-and-mortar store and digital retail will crumble away as smart technologies that collect data about customer preferences are used to create a truly singular shopping experience..